International Horticultural Congress (IHC) 2018

Country

Activity

Sharing Information and connecting people

As Heraclitus once said ‘Change is the only constant in life’. The World is changing constantly and together with it challenges, population, problems, and solutions are also changing. Horticulture is no exception, it is under constant pressure from climate change, population growth and environmental issues. Questions such as: Would our current species survive the impact of changing climate and humans? Will contamination in soils affect fruits? Will we be able to feed the world? Commonly arise as a result of the growing concern.
‘Rookies’ of this year’s congress would end up being experts of the horticultural science and eventually face above mentioned challenges and many others in near future. To let their voice and thoughts be heard; BSc, MSc, PhD candidates and all other young people who will be participating in the congress from all over the world are invited to send their contributions to participate in the workshop on Future of World Horticulture from Youth's Eyes. Both author’s original work and reviews of present literature, are invited.

Themes

Main Themes of presentation may include (Not Limited To): Current situation, future challenges, and possibilities in their area of study (both scientifically and geographically).

Policy and Economics (Case studies that provides useful solutions to challenges faced in planning, management, examples of policies that were proven to be beneficial for horticultural science and sector etc.)

Goals

To provide participants of the congress youth’s overall point of view on current issues and the trends in horticultural science, with an emphasis given on future challenges and their possible solutions

To promote a youth network in ISHS and create possible connections for further collaborations between youth.

To publish a booklet titled ‘Future of World Horticulture from Youth’s Eyes’ using the inputs from abstracts and discussions with final statement.

The deadline for abstract submission is 4 December 2017.

For more information visit here the XXX. International Horticultural Congress (IHC2018 website.

Youth success stories

"Being a YPARD representative gave me so many empowering opportunities, but also a chance to empower others" Testimonial by Ivana Radic Jean highlighting her experience and journey in working with youth in agriculture within the YPARD Serbia community since February 2013.

In 2017, YPARD member, Sebastian Mengel, was the recipient of the Master Thesis award for his collaborative research with YPARD, HAFL and CGIAR CRP drylands program on agricultural livelihoods of rural youth in the drylands of Midelt, Morocco.

This testimonial by Dinesh Panday highlights his experience in working with youth in agriculture within the YPARD Nepal community since 2012. He is currently a doctoral graduate research assistant (2016-2019) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the former YPARD Nepal country representative.

The climate-smart irrigation system was designed with the aim of addressing these challenges; by collecting rainwater, transferring it below the soil surface and using it during the time of low rainfall thus making water available and accessible for perennial plants all year round.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 was created to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts to ensure climate resilient agriculture and ICT based business promotional interventions from producer to consumer level. Youth, therefore, can play a supporting role to increase awareness and promote the agenda of SDG for agricultural sustainability to make sure others are aware of it.

Marc Ghislain tells about all the changing scenes in his life as a young professional in agriculture: the anxiety in choosing a profession in agriculture and how his engagement with YPARD helped him find his feet in the agricultural sector.

I strongly support and believe in an inclusive and equitable quality education together with lifelong learning opportunities for all. It is very important that we start to facilitate more flexible career paths in science if we want to encourage diversity and creativity. Being a lifelong learner is a value of sustainable self-development. It opens the door to life-changing, rewarding, fulfilling and continuous growth.

The role of young people in helping shift gender perceptions is paramount. We can no longer employ tradition and culture as excuses for allowing basic inequalities between genders to occur and to keep perpetuating themselves. We need to acknowledge and cherish culture, but also acknowledge that culture is not a static entity and that it can, and must, evolve towards a more equal society.

In an era where population, technologies and modernization are fast growing, meeting up with the basic food needs of the population worldwide is one of the greatest challenges nations and international institutions are witnessing. Marc Ghislain shares his views on how the young people can be part of the solution and more importantly in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal number two.